16 TVBEurope


www.tvbeurope.com August 2013


Slope ofenlightenment


TVBEurope’s fifth IT Broadcast Workflow conference at BAFTA last month was another key milestone in the momentous journey from tape-based to file-based operations in European television broadcasting. Melanie Dayasena-Lowe, Dick Hobbsand Fergal Ringrosereport on keynotes and case studies


(Left to right) Mark Bos, Boundless Productions/Freemantlemedia UK; Neil Hatton, post production consultant; Andy Tennant, DPP/ITV; Kevin Burrows, DPP/Channel 4; moderator George Bevir, Broadcast


Opening Keynote Session with the Digital Production Partnership


By Dick Hobbs


OPENING THE2013 IT Broadcast Workflow conference, event chair Jeremy Bancroft noted that the first of these events took place just over four years ago, and a lot has changed since then. “File-based transfers were just starting to happen, but we were in a digital archipelago, connected by unjoined-up workflows,” he said. “There were digital islands, with a sea of tape between them.” He emphasised that what is


different today is the way in which we look at projects like moving to a file-based infrastructure. Not only is it about applying the best of contemporary technology, it is about understanding the commercial basis on which we all now work, one of the key themes which was developed during the day. “On behalf of Media Asset


Capital, I have worked from New Zealand to New York, South Africa to South Acton,” he said. “Not a single organisation in that time understood their cost model. They did not know, for example, how long it took to prepare an hour’s television for


transmission. How can you make commercial decisions if you do not know your base cost model?” The conference itself opened with a keynote session involving some of the key figures involved in the UK’s Digital Production Partnership. This is essentially an informal, but hugely influential, discussion group funded and led by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, with representatives from Sky, Channel 5, S4C and now BT Sport. Their aim is to set out recommendations for content interchange and media


Delegates take their seats for the start of ITBW 2013


Fergal Ringrose, editorial director for TVBEurope, opens the fifth IT Broadcast Workflow conference


Channel 4. “We felt we had to give them some guidance on codecs and formats. We wanted to get to a point where we had one file-based standard, or we would all be worrying about our own systems.” The panel was keen to


underline that the challenges of file-based production were not limited to content delivery. The new breed of cameras — the GoPro was mentioned


generate. “I work on Grand Designs and we have shooting ratios of 100:1.” Andy Tennant of ITV concurred, adding “the challenge is in


finding the best shots out of that huge shooting ratio.” Much of their discussion, though, was around the file- based delivery standard. There


“As broadcasters we cannot put the maximum amount of money on screen if we are still having to paddle frantically beneath the surface to manage different inputs” Andy Tennant, ITV


handling, to simplify the work of the UK’s broadcasters, and in so doing improve the commercial situation. “With the explosion of acquisition formats, there was a lot of confusion amongst production companies,” said Kevin Burrows, DPP technical standards lead and CTO of


several times — tend to encourage productions to shoot more, all of which has to be managed. Data wrangling and data storage now have to be line items on a production budget. Mark Bos of Freemantle Media talked about the popular documentary shows they work on, and the sort of content they


was recognition that getting everyone — broadcasters, producers, post houses and vendors — facing in the same direction was no simple matter. “One of the things the DPP has been good at is embracing the views from across the industry,” noted Neil Hatton, consultant in the post industry. “We have


had some robust debates, but the DPP has taken these views on board.”


The conclusion was to


develop a file structure that was relatively simple so did not need too much processing (either for the deliverer or the receiver) but maintains excellent image and sound quality and retains all the key metadata. It also needed to be widely recognised and supported by the industry, and have a clear roadmap for the middle distance. To achieve the equivalent quality of HDCAM-SR the choice of codec was AVC-Intra. AMWA had a defined standard, AS03, which met the sort of file structure and metadata capabilities that the DPP had visualised — but it did not


All photos: Aaron Petrie


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